


An Unconventional Assassination

by etudette



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-24
Updated: 2015-08-20
Packaged: 2018-04-05 22:06:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4196673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/etudette/pseuds/etudette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>16 year old Illumi has an assignment. He has to assassinate an informant in Meteor City working to eliminate the Ten Dons. Unfortunately, he gets a little distracted by two other Nen users with their own agendas. Adultrio fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Welcome to Meteor City!

Meteor City.

Illumi’s heard of it before. Once through his mother when he was five years old.

“Wipe those tears, Illumi,” She had said tersely, wrapping a bandage clinically around his injured hands. They were in the living room. Kikyo was sitting on a velvet chair, wearing one of her purple petticoats and large feather hats despite not having stepped foot outside the entire day. Illumi was kneeling by her feet, his hands resting in her lap as she fixed them up. His eyes were red and few tears were rolling down his cheeks, though his face remained expressionless.

She pulled the bandage a little too hard and it rubbed against his blisters.

“It hurts.” He said monotonously, stating it more as a fact rather than a complaint. Still, he could hear his father’s voice in his head: _Using pain as an excuse for failure is unacceptable._

Kikyo stared pointedly at him, tightening the bandage a little harder to test him. She was waiting for him to wince. But Illumi knew better. He wiped the excess tears with his available hand and looked up at his mother blankly. She gave a small smile and started humming as she finished up.

“You know, Illumi, I couldn’t bear it the first couple nights when you cried out from the isolation room. It always hurts a mother!” She said dramatically in her shrill voice. “Your father was so disappointed. But I told him, you would get used to it soon. And goodness, not a sound this morning!”

Normally, Illumi was good at abiding by his father’s philosophy. He rarely ever cried. His mother prided him on his consistently neutral expression. But when his grandfather pulled the lever and electricity ran through his body, he couldn’t help the initial screams that slipped out from the torturous burning sensation.

“But of course,” His mother continued, pinning the bandage in place. “When I was your age, I endured much more than you. The Zoldyck Estate is incomparable to Meteor City.”

“What’s Meteor City?”

She pinched his nose affectionately. “One day when it’s necessary, you will find out.”

As if on cue, Milluki – who was only a couple months old – had started crying.

“Oh!” Kikyo stood up immediately, and rushed over to the cradle, making shushing noises to calm the baby. She looked over at her older son, who was still kneeling on the floor.

“Illumi, go and find your father! He wanted to train you individually.”  
________________________________________

The second time was when he was seven, and this time, it was through a conversation with Gotoh. Illumi was sitting in the Butler’s Headquarters, having completed his training for the day. His mother – tired from caring for Milluki – had suggested he help assess the newest butlers. Her suggestion, which was disguised to appeal to Illumi’s sense of usefulness, was actually a method of pressuring Gotoh into babysitting her son.

Gotoh was the only butler Illumi had known since birth, and the only butler that the Zoldycks trusted completely.

“Master Illumi,” one of the newer butlers said timidly that afternoon. Illumi was distracted with the gaming device he got for his birthday. “Would you please get off the couch ledge, I was just sweeping—”

Illumi calmly looked up from the electronic device and stared at the incompetent butler, daring her to finish her sentence. She could not.

“Gotoh,” Illumi reverted his attention to the head butler. He swung his feet obnoxiously so that his shoes kicked dirt onto the white couch.

“Master Illumi.”

Gotoh was always very prim, hands in white gloves tucked behind his back as he listened to the young child.

“How did you learn that coin trick?”

Gotoh looked unfazed. Illumi wondered briefly if the man had been asked the question several times before.

“When I was a boy about your age, I came across a few coins lying on the ground in Meteor City. My father told me to hide them, save them for when I need them, when I was too tired to steal food. I grew quite attached to them. They resemble my resolve to live.”

The head butler never dwelled on any topic, giving a simple answer that didn’t nearly answer anything at all. But Illumi let it go. He had other important jobs. It was unnecessary to cultivate other interests besides what his family needed of him. Milluki was two years old by now, and so Illumi’s current task was training his younger brother in toxin immunity. That was his main priority.

Growing up, he had only heard about Meteor City a few more times. He generally knew the basics: it was a junkyard, full of thieves and murderers. He knew there were no official files on any of the citizens. It was a wasteland where criminals reigned and those who couldn’t fight ended up killed or hungry. The city was ultimately irrelevant. His parents had never gotten any assignments in that area before.

Until now.

“I’m going to Meteor City, Father?”

Silva nodded. Illumi was sixteen by now, well old enough to accept official Zoldyck job requests.

“You will be taking Kikyo’s assignment. She had to pass the opportunity, but you are more than capable of finishing the job.”

Illumi didn’t smile, but a tingling sensation surged through his veins. Adrenaline? Joy? It was similar to electricity, but it wasn’t a brash painful feeling…it was nice and warm, and settled in his core. The feeling was akin to the fluttering in his stomach when Killu was born. Silva sounded proud of him, and Illumi was not going to disappoint.

“Your target is Xenon, a skilled informant in Meteor City. His physical appearance is unknown as he uses aliases whenever he leaves his residence. You must find him, kill him, and access his computer database. He has classified files on the Ten Dons that must be destroyed.”

“What are the time constraints?”

“The Southernpiece Auction takes place in exactly two months, and the Dons want the files burnt as soon as possible, at the latest two weeks before the auction. The deadline is generous, however your mother and I expect you to complete the task in a month’s time.”

Illumi nodded.

“Bring nothing with you except for your pins. You will not need money.”

Illumi understood. He was to obtain food and shelter by any means necessary, through force if he had to.

“I trust you can complete this job. There will be consequences if you fail.”

There always were.  
________________________________________

After flying for a couple hours on a private airplane, one of the butlers had dropped off Illumi near the entrance going into – what Illumi assumed – was Meteor City.

Even from afar, it was the most unconventional city Illumi had ever seen. There were no signs, roads or buildings anywhere. Instead, trash and pollution filled the air and the dirt streets. Metal pieces from aircraft machinery were visible along the city’s horizon and the sky seemed to permanently inhabit a dark shade of red. Illumi wondered where everyone lived.

Despite the bleak, barren setting, the city sounded densely populated. He could hear shouting and indecipherable noises around the city, though most of the people were undoubtedly hidden in shadows and behind broken automobiles and tall garbage piles.

Illumi was vigilant as he walked. He had already stuck pins into his body to disguise himself as his favorite secondary identity: Gittarackur, a man covered in yellow pins from head to toe with an indigo blue mohawk. Each step he took gave an unsettling cracking sound, like the sound of bones rattling. The disguise was meant to serve two purposes: keep him from being recognizable and intimidate those around him.

Even though he took extra precautionary measures, Illumi was far from frightened. He was trained for this. He had no fears. His ears and nen were alert for anyone tailing him. As a newcomer, he knew he was a target.

He walked for a few miles at least towards the "heart of the city" or the part of the region where there was an abundance of metal pieces resembling buildings. Most of the city's outskirts were trash dumps that other countries had used as their personal landfills. Illumi guessed the poorer, more helpless citizens lived out here as he saw only few skinny children playing with sticks and pathetic men crawling and digging around trash for food. Some of them looked over as he passed by, the rattling sound unavoidable to even less sensitive ears. But their reactions were a complete contrast to citizens' living in wealthier regions of the world. On many of Illumi's missions, people screamed just looking at Gittarackur.

Soon enough, Illumi came across a run-down shed, and since it was the only housing unit he had seen so far, he decided to go inside... if only to analyze what kind of people lived in Meteor City.

The moment he entered through the curtain door, he heard the obnoxious loud smack of bubble gum, followed by a “You pop that gum one more time Hisoka and I’ll shove my fist up your ass!”

“Your words wound me.” Illumi could hear the pout in the man’s deep, sultry voice. “But I would love to see you try~” He sounded teasing, his tone matching a sing-song that seemed too feminine for his pitch. A slight chill ran up Illumi’s spine, but he ignored it.

His eyes immediately shifted towards the source of the noise. It wasn’t difficult to pinpoint. Sitting at the bar to his left was a girl with bright neon tattoos along her body, though she seemed ordinary in comparison to her counterpart. Next to her was a relatively lean man with fiery pink hair, disturbingly dressed in pale pink clown attire. He was turned so Illumi couldn’t see his entire face, but there were some tattoos or drawings of some kind on his cheeks.

Illumi crinkled his nose in disgust. The man – Hisoka – popped his gum again.

Not to cause unnecessary conflict for himself, he intended to look away. The man was not his target. Unfortunately, Hisoka had already noticed his sudden appearance and got up from the barstool. Fully standing, he was tall – even taller than Illumi, though not by much.

Illumi cursed internally as the man walked towards him. This was not part of the itinerary. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this pretty late at night, but it was an idea that came to me that I just wanted to run with as soon as possible. Plus, there isn't enough adultrio fics in this world to satisfy me, so I'm just going to have to write them myself.


	2. You can be the Bonnie to my Clyde

_Don’t engage._

“Hmm…”

Hisoka eyed him up and down—much to Illumi’s annoyance—and licked his lips a bit before smirking devilishly. 

“I haven’t seen you here before.” 

_Don’t engage._

“Cool pins.” He said it slyly as he stepped closer to Illumi. He reached and before he could pull out one of the pins sticking into Illumi’s nose, Illumi grabbed his hand in mid-action. His face unchanged from the small smile characteristic to Gittarackur.

However, rather than surprised, Hisoka looked more excited than ever; eyes lit and shaped like half-moons. His mouth curved into a wide thin-lipped grin. Blood heating underneath his pale skin. 

He leaned in too close – breath tickling the outer shell of Illumi’s ear uncomfortably. “Why don’t you take those out and show me what you really look like.”

Illumi gritted his teeth, annoyed. The realization came sooner that he was going to have to kill Hisoka. And in front of all these people too… His mother would not be proud at such a messy execution, but unfortunately, circumstances arise.

In less than a second, he pulled out one of the pins on his shirt and aimed it at Hisoka’s jugular, only for it to stop in his grip, a millimeter away from Hisoka’s neck.

He tried to push it harder, farther in to make contact with the skin, but the pin wouldn’t move. He looked at Hisoka’s face… the clown still smiling comically, unflinching. He looked down at Hisoka’s body language, an index finger pointed straight at Illumi’s pin.

He heard giggling that crescendoed slowly until Hisoka was laughing so hard that he almost doubled over. _Stupid fucking clown._

“You’re not using Gyo, ah… what was your name again?”

Illumi didn’t respond, but he focused his nen on Hisoka’s finger and began to see a pink sticky substance outstretching from the tip and wrapping around Illumi’s hand. He tried wiggling his hand experimentally to see how exactly the substance controlled his movements. It felt like—

“Gum. _Bungee_ gum. It possesses both the properties of rubber and gum.”

Illumi’s eyebrow twitched and he retreated his pin, but the rubber still refused to loosen.

He’s been stopped by nen before, stopped by a transmuter before. Trained by transmuters. But his grandfather’s nen was far more intimidating, and Illumi would be damned if he’d let such a small inconvenience best him.

He could tell Hisoka was the type to be roused up easily, so he said, “Remove the gum. It would not be a fair fight otherwise.” His voice came out in a robotic, heavier tone.

“Oh, so you want to fight me now.”

“Yes.”

Hisoka smiled a little before waving his hand to shoo Illumi off, which Illumi might’ve added was completely ineffective considering the bungee gum still attached to his wrist. “You’re going to have to take off that weak disguise or it wouldn’t be a fair fight now, would it?”

“The circumstances are inappropriate.”

“Hmm?” Hisoka pondered for a bit, finger tapping his chin as he pretended to be in deeper thought than he probably was. “Ah!”

In one swift motion, he wrapped his lean arm around Illumi’s shoulders uncomfortably, and yelled back in his sing-song voice, “Shiva, get the bill please” as he pushed them through the curtain door. 

The action was done so quickly that Illumi barely registered he was being maneuvered into a different setting. But considering he liked to kill without an audience – speculators were messy, he might have had to kill them all – he didn’t protest when his brain caught up to the motions around him. A shrill cry broke his thoughts: “Hisoka, you dumbass! You owe me 1000 jenny!”

Hisoka waved it off however, choosing instead to focus on his new subject. 

“Now you can take out the pins,” He said simply, waiting. There was a glint of anticipation in his eyes. He placed his hand on his hips in a ridiculously boyish way.

“And what will you do if I do not?”

Hisoka tsk-ed, a sound that Illumi decided he did not care much for. He stood in front of Illumi, a finger tilting up Illumi’s chin as he stared at him directly into his eyes. Then, carefully, Hisoka whispered:

“I just want to see what you’re hiding underneath those layers.”

Illumi tried to jump back, to push Hisoka away but he could not move.

“Bungee gum,” Hisoka said, noticing Illumi’s confusion. There was a change in the way he spoke the words – back to its obnoxiously airy tone. “You’re still not using Gyo.”

Illumi realized his situation and he cursed himself for letting it progress to this point. Why did he wait so long? He could have struck earlier, when Hisoka was almost pressed against his face. But he was… distracted somehow. Slightly frustrated with his carelessness, he decided he would have to dispatch the gum first. Slowly, Illumi pulled out the pins one by one and tried to ignore the way Hisoka’s eyes gleamed and how Hisoka licked his lips watching the transformation. 

“Oh,” Hisoka finally said, once all the pins were removed. Illumi shrunk considerably from his height as Gittarackur, and while his face looked less intimidating, the blank stare was slightly unsettling.

Hisoka stared for longer with blissful eyes and a smirk on his face. The display almost made Illumi want to give a forceful, “Well?”

The look vanished when Hisoka closed his eyes and pursed his lips, allowing himself to be vulnerable for two seconds – two seconds that Illumi wasted trying to figure out his opponent rather than ending his life.

“Hmm, you’re too young.” Hisoka eyed him again, but not with disdain. Excitement, maybe. “Not ripe enough.”

The obnoxious comment allowed Illumi to regain his composure as he snapped back, curtly, “Am I going to be killing you easily or are you going to put up a fight.” 

And then Hisoka laughed a little bit. It was an ugly laugh. “You sound more effeminate too.” 

Illumi pouted. “Is than an insult?” 

Hisoka smiled at him before detaching the bungee gum. He began to walk away without further response, brushing Illumi off as if he were a mere child.

Illumi was furious, eyes narrowing as the figure moved farther away from him. This feeling was rejection, he decided. He didn’t like it. Illumi was perfect. He dedicated his life to perfecting his nen, to his profession. He had not felt rejection in years. And yet…

Too ungracefully for him to be proud of, he threw a pin lightning fast, aimed at Hisoka’s skull. Only for Hisoka to dodge it easily by shifting his head and turning around with another disgusting smirk across his face. 

“Where are you going?” Illumi seethed. His voice strained and broke at the last syllable; he sounded _needy_. Showing even the slightest hint of desperation would have given him at least ten shocks back at home.

“Hmm.” Hisoka walked back, grinning. “Why are you here?”

Illumi did not answer.

“You won’t last a day out here.”

Illumi narrowed his eyes. 

“Ah! Here’s an idea.” Illumi waited, sure that this “idea” would be awful. And in the back of his mind, his conscience was begging him to just _kill_. Do what he had been taught and trained for his entire life. Clean, by the neck, like his mother told him. But he could not.

The intercostal nerves, the median nerve, the radial nerve… Illumi had studied anatomy. He knew where to strike, how much pressure was needed to disable a human. But he was motionless. Again. And he justified it by thinking that… maybe he _was_ weaker. And maybe Hisoka was right. He won’t win, can’t win. And Kil still needed him. So Illumi couldn’t make a fatal flaw, not now.

This was the reason. While it was troubling that there was an inherent weakness at all, it was good that he was competent enough to at least pinpoint the issue. On an intrinsic level, Illumi was just not strong enough yet… and none of his incapacitation had to do with the way he felt Hisoka’s hot breath on his skin. Or the goose bumps rising on his arms: a direct contrast to his internal temperature heating up like a blue flame. He had not realized Hisoka motioning closer and closer to him until he was almost pressed against Hisoka’s body: the sensation foreign but strangely comfortable.

“I will be your guide.”

Illumi snapped away from his thoughts, backing up a few inches. He blushed when he felt the heat disperse from his pants. “Excuse me?”

Hisoka blinked momentarily, a smile tugging at his lips. Illumi wanted the earth to swallow Hisoka.

“Your guide!” Hisoka said, changing the subject. His arms folded across his chest as if his mind was already decided. “No one comes to Meteor City without a _reason_.”

Illumi frowned. He didn’t need anyone’s help. This was _his_ mission. 

“Assassins do not have friends.”

Hisoka burst into laughter, causing Illumi to twitch his eyebrow in annoyance. “Who said anything about friends? I was thinking more like…”

Hisoka leaned close again, this time to whisper in Illumi’s ear.

_“Lovers.”_

Illumi’s head snapped backwards so fast he was sure he almost got whiplash. His face felt hot and he wanted desperately to hide himself, not appreciating this sudden change in his normally cold façade.

“Absolutely not,” Illumi answered a bit too hurriedly, avoiding Hisoka’s gaze completely.

Hisoka laughed, doubling over and clutching his stomach. “God, you have a stick up your ass.”

“I do not.”

Hisoka smiled. “Acquaintances then, _mon amour_. Besides you’ll have to sleep somewhere tonight.”

Illumi internally shivered, not liking the implication—if there was even one at all. Everything this boy said sounded provocative and inappropriate.

“I do not require sleep.”

“We don’t have to sleep,” Hisoka winked.

Illumi resisted the temptation to dry heave. He didn’t want to be anywhere near Hisoka, ever again. He knew somewhere deep inside that his subconscious was on the verge of procuring dangerous thoughts, so he pushed one of the needles in his arm farther in. The sting helped maintain his composure.

“I will let you live if you do not bother me again.”

“But I like bothering you.”

Illumi’s eyebrow twitched—it was starting to become a habit. Hisoka was too persistent at this point, aroused by adventure. It would be easier to throw him out later on – hopefully if Hisoka spotted newer prey or even better, got so bored he killed himself. The new plan was to wait, Illumi decided.

“What information do you have?” 

Hisoka’s eyes widened with anticipation as he linked his arm with Illumi’s forcibly. “Lots.” 


End file.
